NOTES ON THE SCUTELLATION OF THE RED 



KING SNAKE, OPHIBOLUS DOLIATUS 



COCCINEUS, SCHLEGEL. 



C. S. BRIMLKY. 



"Body color scarlet, completely encircled by pairs of black 

 rings, with interspaced white in the young-, yellow in the 

 adults: no lateral spots, top of head red, with the first black 

 ring crossing the parietals. The pattern is formed by the 

 obliteration of the lateral portion of the black borders of dor- 

 sal spots, and the extension of their transverse portion entirely 

 around the body. The lateral spots have disappeared" (From 

 *'A Review of the Genera and species of North American 

 Snakes. North of Mexico," by A. E. Brown, Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci, Phila, Jan. 1901). According to Brown the normal scut- 

 ellation would seem to be 21 rows of scales, loreal present, one 

 temporal in the first row, the rows of scales occasionally vary- 

 ing to 19, and the loreal sometimes absent, this extreme form 

 being the Osceola elapsoidea B. and G. 



Cope treats the two forms as a distinct species, and gives 

 the scutellation as loreal present, two temporals in first row, 

 and rows of scales 21 for coccmeus, and loreal absent, one 

 temporal in first row, row of scales 17 or 19 for elapsoidea. 

 (Crocodilians, Lizards and Snakes of North America, byE.D. 

 Cope, Report of U S. Nat. Museum, 1898. ) 



My experience is that the normal formula is, scales in 19 

 rows, occasionally 17 or 21, one temporal in first row, occa- 

 sionally two, and loreal usually present, but sometimes absent 

 on one or both sides. 



The specimens that I have examined with reference to some 

 or all of these points are 



1905] 146 



